Andrew Albrecht

Professor Padgett
ENGL 101
14 October 2015
The Importance of Visuals
Two phrases I hear often are that a picture is worth a thousand words and that
seeing is believing. The first phrase carries the meaning that graphic illustrations covey a
stronger message than words while the second phrase carries the meaning that you need
to see something before you can accept that it really exists or occurs. These sayings
exemplify just how important visuals truly are. A Photo-Essay on the Bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki is an informational text about the bombings of two Japanese
cities during the Second World War. A group of photos and paintings that show the
aftermath of the bombings accompany the text. The visuals in this piece of writing add so
much depth to the piece as a whole. I believe that visuals are meaningful because without
them it is impossible to truly know if something has occurred or is currently occurring
and that no matter how in depth a written text describes something, it can never compare
to the effect a visual has on you.
In A Photo-Essay on the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the text gives
the reader information about the two Japanese cities that the United States dropped
nuclear bombs on to help end the war. Included with the information on the events, of
which occurred back in August of 1945, are a number of pictures and drawings that
display the aftermath of the bombings. Without these visuals there would be no absolute
proof in this text that the bombings actually took place if you had no prior knowledge of

the events before reading the text. Just because someone writes or says something does
not make it true but if you are provided with visual evidence of something it becomes
clear whether what that person wrote or said is true or not. For example, just because the
text says that, the first operational atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima
doesnt make that true just because it is said by whoever wrote the text. Instead, what
proves the text to be true is that one of the pictures provided along with the text is of the
massive atomic cloud left behind by the bomb, taken about 1 hour after the dropping.
This picture depicts how massive the explosion was because even though the photo was
take from 80 kilometers away, the explosion still takes up a large portion of the space in
the picture. Another example is that just because the text says that, altogether an area of
13 square kilometers was reduced to ashes, there would be no definitive proof that this
actually occurred if there wasnt a picture provided that shows the rubble left behind by
the first bomb. The picture of the rubble uses faint colors that illustrate how depressing
the aftermath of the bomb being dropped was.
The text from A Photo-Essay on the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki also
gives the reader information about the effects that the bombs had on the people of Japan.
The effects of dropping the two atomic bombs were supposed to massive as they were
dropped in order to force Japan to surrender. The bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima as
stated in the piece of writing, destroyed all wooden structure within a two-kilometer
radius, reduced an area of 13 square kilometers to ashes, managed to destroy 62.9 percent
of buildings, and ended up killing an estimated 140,000. The bomb that was dropped on
Nagasaki, also written about in the text, took down most of the reinforced concrete
buildings within a 750-meter radius of the hypocenter, reduced an area of 6.7 square

kilometers to ashes, managed to destroy or damage 22.7 percent of the buildings in the
city, and ended up killing an estimated 73,884 people. Even though these facts have a
decent effect on you, the strongest effect by far from the entire piece comes from the
visuals. For example, while it is sad to read that an estimated, 118,661 civilian deaths
took place in the year following the detonation of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, it
breaks my heart to see the picture of the dead girl in the hospital with her skin hanging
off of her in strips. The shape of her body with strips of her skin hanging off gives the
viewer the perspective of how destructive the bombs truly were. Also, no writer, no
matter how great, can put into words the immense sadness that takes over your body
when you see the picture of the girl lying dead in the middle of all the rubble. This girl,
from what you can assume from the picture is an innocent civilian, never had a chance to
fight for her life because before she knew what was happening, her life was over. The
picture might make you think of her family and if they are dead as well or if they are
looking for their daughter, sister, niece, etcetera and how distressing that truly is that, if
alive, they will never know exactly what her fate was. They will never know where or if
she died. They will never know what her last words were if she had any. They will never
know what the last emotion she felt was if she felt one. They will never have a body to
bury. And finally, they will never get to see her again, hear her laugh again, see her smile
again, wrap her in their arms again, or tell her they love her again. They never got the
chance to say goodbye. The emotions you feel when visualizing a picture like this, like
many of the other pictures included with the text, are far beyond what can be described
through words.

I am confident that visuals are meaningful because not only can a written text, no
matter how descriptive it may be, compare to the effect a visual has on you, it is also
impossible to know for certain if something is true without having a visual to back it up.
Without the visuals in A Photo-Essay on the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
someone new to the information would have no way of knowing if the text was true and
even if it was confirmed that the information was true, they would have not get the same
effect out of the content without visuals. The phrases a picture is worth a thousand words
and seeing is believing are not only important, they are extremely valuable.